Author OMAIR AHMAD discussed his non-fiction book on Bhutan with DIVYA KAUSHIK. He wrote it because there wasn’t much material on the region’s history and politics. His next will be based on his hometown Gorakhpur
His father was an engineer, while his grandfather was a doctor who served on the Burma front as a major in the Royal Medical Corps during World War II. May be this is the reason why Omair Ahmad has been combining his writing with work as a policy analyst, journalist and political adviser. He is now involved with a firm that supports NGOs. Just being a writer sounds ‘superficial’ to him.
“I did my masters from JNU and went to Syracuse University in New York to study international relations with a focus on Kashmir. The US did not interest me as much as India. It’s my country, I know the issues. And there are so many exciting things to do here,” said Ahmad, author of novels like Encounters and The Storyteller’s Tale.
Initially Delhi, where he is based, wasn’t easy to adjust. “I belong to Gorakhpur, studied at international schools in Saudi Arabia and went to Woodstock Mussoorie when I returned. So I did spend time in India, but was always hopping around. I was here during the holidays. When I finally came down, I found most things work on the basis of who we know. Brilliant people, even with the best education, would not know where to find the job they are looking for. I came from a family of doctors and engineers and could have dropped names, but did not. Itni mehnat karke padhai ki and uske baad bhi kisi ka naam lena pade to kya (What is the use of education if you have to throw influential names to be at the right placeIJ) I was fortunate that through a friend I learnt about this opportunity to work with the British High Commission,” he shared.
Writing was not on his agenda. “Just the other day a friend was telling me he doesn’t have a single well-written mail or paper in his office. The language might be Hindi, English or Urdu, but we must know how to communicate,” shared Ahmad, who got a Man Asian literary Prize for the book, Jimmy, The Terrorist. His last three novels were fiction but the recent one is a non-fiction work on Bhutan.
It’s titled The Kingdom at the Centre of the World, Journeys into Bhutan (Aleph). “I got interested during 2005, while researching water issues and India’s relations with other countries. I found that Bhutan is the only country with whom we don’t have issues. I tried researching more but there wasn’t enough material to inspire me to visit the country and learn about its history and politics,” he remarked
Beginning with Padmasambhava’s epic work to establish Buddhism in the Himalayas, the book tells the story about Bhutan’s emergence as an independent Buddhist nation during the 17th century under Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who turned his back on Tibet; the exploits of Jigme Namgyal — the Black Regent — who united Bhutan and fought the armies of British India to a standstill; and the remarkable Wangchuk monarchs, who ruled Bhutan from the start of the 20th century.
Alongside, the book examines events around Bhutan that affected it profoundly: the rise and fall of Tibet and the Mongol and British empires; the spread of Nepali-origin people across South Asia; Sikkim’s dramatic loss of sovereignty and the conflicting territorial ambitions of India and China.
“The country has progressed. When I first went there, people didn’t even have glass windows, as it is difficult to carry glass in the mountains. But last time I visited in February, there were heated wooden floors even in an average hotel.”
Ahmad has a collection of books on Bhutan collected from across the world. He next will be a novel on Gorakhpaur. He observed, “Small towns have historical stories that are nationally important.”